Backyard Farmgals

As I gathered eggs this morning, I was so struck by how beautiful they are.  Each has it's own unique hue of color and shape.  Each chicken lays an egg with her "signature" on it, be it color, tint, shape, speckles; each one is so unique, and so beautiful in it's own way.  Eggs somehow entrance me.  They are the beginning of life, the very essence of what life comes from.  I often look at them with fascination.   I was watching the Royal Wedding this morning and was thinking about Prince Charles.  He has been an amazing advocate of chickens, organic gardening and organic food for more than thirty years.  His garden at Highgrove has been an inspiration to me.  I bought a book about Highgrove when I was first married to Woodman eleven years ago.  I have thumbed through the photos and read about the transformation of the estate since it was purchased in 1980.  Sheep and cows "mow" the grounds, water is recy...

A few random pictures of spring.  Between moments of sunshine and hailstorms these photos have been keeping my hopes up that spring WILL get here...eventually! One of my favorite things about spring: pink tulips. They are the hope and promise of a new season, warmth and sunshine to come.   I love the green streaks on the petals and the softness that emanates from them.  They have got to be one of the most magnificent flowers! I'm in love with this black and white.  Don't you just love the shape of the petals?  They almost look like they are trying to kiss you! Ranunculus.  They are so bright and cheerful.  I love how the petals almost glow.  These are the party animals of spring!!!  They don't hold anything back, they give all their color and all their energy to putting a smile on my face. I have 200 daffodils blooming right outside my back door.  They are so happy.  If any flower was able to give joy, it has to be daff...

I have had ample opportunity to work on my 'tater salad recipe this spring.  Birthdays, Easter, all kinds of fun get-togethers to which I have been assigned potato salad each time.  I have made it numerous ways over the years, but there is one variation of the recipe that seems to always be a winner.  It is so easy, so simple, and I think that simple is the key word when it comes to potato salad.  The more complicated I make it, the less everyone likes it.  I learned the basic potato salad recipe from my mom and grandpa, each did theirs a little different.  What you put in certain dishes kind of becomes your signature in the kitchen, so make it your own.  My grandpa liked big hunks of raw onion.  He would lean over during dinner and ask, "How do you like it?", between tears (from the raw onions), I would nod my head.  Not being one to adopt the raw onions, I have opted for a good amount of sliced green onions.  They are much more mil...

Woodman and Ian with one of the swarms Saturday was a very eventful day for us.  We got up early, dressed and headed out the door on our way to Grantsville.  Let me tell you, that is the LONGEST drive.  Out past the Oquirrh Mountains and through Toole all to get to a little building stuffed full of bees and surrounded by fanatics awaiting their buzzing hoards.  We bought two Queens and two full swarms of bees.  The type of bees that we bought are called Italians, they are more gentle than other varieties and can easily be handled without stinging.  The guy next to us pulled up in a van and loaded eighteen swarms.  Each swarm is about 2,000 bees, give or take a few.  They come in boxes, each box has a Queen attached in a little tiny box of her own.  The large box has a can of sugar water to feed the bees until they reach their destination.  We also spritzed ours down with extra sugar water before, during, and after the drive home. ...

This spring has been the year of the cold-frame.  I convinced Woodman that I desperately needed a large cold-frame that sat over my smallest raised bed.  I came home from work one afternoon to find, much to my delight, that he had made the perfect cold-frame, it was sitting in the back of the truck, ready to be moved into place.  Lucky me! I promptly helped Woodman move the frame and rushed to the garden supply store the next morning to find a soil thermometer.  This purchase officially nudged me into the garden geek category.  I now eagerly check the temperature of the soil under the cold-frame, watching it slightly fluctuate with the changes of weather.  It stays between 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit, rarely does it drop below. Thanks to Woodman's ingenuity and my nagging-wife demands, I am able to extend the planting season for tender things (like greens) a month earlier and one to one-and-a-half months later, depending on the weather.  I have plante...

Remember all that garlic that you planted last fall?  I do!  Right before putting the garden to sleep last fall, I planted my skinny raised bed with three types of garlic.  I ordered organic garlic from a store online, one variety is a hardneck, the other two are softnecks. Hardnecks have what is called a scape, which can be cut before the garlic is harvested.  Scapes can be used for cooking, I love them lightly sauteed with eggs and omelets.  Scapes have a mild garlic flavor, but still pack enough punch to liven up your dishes with recognizable garlicy goodness.  Hardnecks also have less of a white papery skin on them and fewer bulbs per head of garlic.  They are a little less shelf stable, so the hardneck varieties should be eaten first.  The variety that I planted is called Persian Star, it is supposed to have a bit of a spicy flavor. These tall stalks are the Persian Star hardneck variety Softnecks store easily, they produce larger and mo...